Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9787144" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't think that JRRT's work suggests that "the world sucks, people suck, etc". His work is optimistic, and that optimism is theological. Because it is theological, it is sceptical about the power of merely human agency; but that is not the only agency at work in the world, as JRRT sees it.In the context of RPGing, and relating to some posts upthread about cosmology, there is a question as to whether the agency of the players, vis-a-vis the shared fiction (including the setting) and exercised by way of action declarations for their PCs, is confined to merely human (or demi-/semi-/etc human) agency. It is often assumed that the answer is yes. But in fact I think this varies with the RPG in question. For instance, I think that (say) Torchbearer 2e answers this question differently ("yes") from how Prince Valiant or 4e D&D does ("not necessarily").This is one component of why TB2e is "grimmer", "grittier" and also (from time-to-time) more ironic than 4e or Prince Valiant.</blockquote>